Following demonstrations supported by the left throughout France, and a first symbolic trip to the Necker hospital, Michel Barnier is continuing his consultations this Sunday in order to form a government and avoid censure.
The essentials
- The new Prime Minister will receive Edouard Philippe, Mayor of Le Havre and candidate for the 2027 presidential election, around 11am this Sunday. The elected official will be accompanied by representatives of Horizon, the party he founded.
- On Saturday, Michel Barnier faced his first demonstrations. According to the Interior Ministry, 110,000 people marched throughout France against the “coup de force” ofEmmanuel Macronwhich appointed the new Prime Minister. The protests were supported by the left, which accuses Michel Barnier of being under the “control” of the National Rally
- On Saturday, RN president Jordan Bardella maintained that his party was “unavoidable in the parliamentary game”. “Nothing can be done without the RN”, he assured. On the set of the 8pm news on TF1 on Saturday, Jordan Bardella recalled that the far-right party would not vote for immediate censure but would judge “on the facts”, so as not to participate in “institutional disorder and democratic chaos”.
- Michel Barnier was also a guest on TF1’s 8pm news on Friday. He gave his priorities, including health and controlling migratory flows “with concrete measures”. “There are 11 million French people who voted RN, and their votes count”, affirmed the Matignon resident.
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09:59 – “I come from below”, says Michel Barnier, who wants to be a “hope for France”
Michel Barnier wants to embody “a hope for France,” he said in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche (JDD), published today. He added: “I will listen to everyone. These people [les Français éloignés de la politique] have ideas and are fed up with it coming from above. […] I come from below, there is no ambiguity.” He calls on those who want “France to work” to “roll up their sleeves” in order to make things happen.
09:49 – Continuation of consultations with Édouard Philippe and his Horizons party
Michel Barnier will receive Édouard Philippe, mayor of Le Havre and candidate for the 2027 presidential election, at Matignon this Sunday around 11 a.m., indicates The FigaroThe former Prime Minister will be accompanied by representatives of the party he founded, Horizons. Michel Barnier is continuing his consultations on this third day of his mandate with a view to forming a government.
09:35 – Three quarters of French people think that Michel Barnier will be censored
According to an Ifop survey for the Sunday Journalthe majority of respondents (52%) would be satisfied with the appointment of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister. Nearly 60% of respondents find Michel Barnier competent, open to dialogue and likeable. However, three-quarters of respondents believe that he will be overthrown by a motion of censure.
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Michel Barnier was appointed Prime Minister on Thursday, September 5. In the columns of OpinionWednesday, September 4, the name of the former European Union negotiator of the Brexit conditions and candidate for the right-wing primary for the 2022 presidential election, who at the time intended to “bring together the right, the center and others”, had appeared as the best option. Minister under Balladur, Juppé and Fillon, deputy of Savoie, senator or even European deputy, the native of La Tronche, near Grenoble (Isère), now aged 73, presents a political CV that is, to say the least, well filled.
Can Michel Barnier escape a motion of censure?
The former Brexit negotiator should, like the others, be censored by all the deputies of the New Popular Front. “Barnier is a right-wing policy. The issue is no longer even the casting, but the line. Macron must now assume what he wants as a coalition in Parliament,” reacted the socialist Pierre Jouvet to the capital’s daily newspaper on Wednesday evening. The line within the left has been quite clear since the results of the legislative elections: any government with a different orientation than theirs will be censored. If hesitations can divide the alliance of the New Popular Front on a few center-left profiles mentioned for Matignon, there is no doubt about a censorship of the PS, ecologist, LFI and PCF deputies against an LR personality.
Michel Barnier could, however, govern if he is not censured by the National Rally deputies. This is in reality the decisive factor for a right-wing personality to be appointed to Matignon, given the weakness of the Macronist bloc and the refusal of the left-wing bloc to participate in a coalition with the Macronists: only an implicit agreement from Marine Le Pen can allow an LR Prime Minister to remain at the head of a government. According to the first statements by RN personalities, this Thursday, September 5, it is unlikely that the RN will not vote for a motion of censure against Michel Barnier.